秋くれど色もかはらぬときは山
よそのもみぢを風ぞかしける
よそのもみぢを風ぞかしける
- Roma-ji
-
Aki kuredo iro mo kawaranu Tokiwayama
yoso no momiji o kaze zo kashikeru - English Translation
-
autumn has come now
yet unchanged in hue remains
Mount Tokiwa still—
so the wind must borrow leaves
of scarlet from distant hills
- Meaning
- Autumn has come, yet on Mount Tokiwa the leaves remain unchanged in color; the wind must be borrowing autumn foliage from other mountains.
- Commentary
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Book Seven Felicitations
An autumn poem among those written on a screen painted with scenes of the four seasons, at the fortieth-year celebration banquet of Fujiwara no Sadakuni, composed by the Naishi-no-Kami.
Mount Tokiwa evokes the evergreen pine through the word “tokiwagi” (evergreen tree), giving the poem an additional meaning of enduring longevity appropriate to a felicitations poem. In reality, some trees upon the mountain do turn color, but the poet playfully imagines that the wind has carried autumn leaves from other mountains and lent them to Tokiwa.
- Author
- Sakanoue no Koreyuki
- Source
- Kokin Wakashu
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Chidori naku Saho no kawagiri tachinurashi
yama no ko no ha mo iro masariyuku - Next Poem
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Shirayuki no furishiku toki wa Miyoshino no
yamashitakaze ni hana zo chirikeru